Promote events with online marketing

Have you ever been to an event that you found out about through word of mouth, or because a friend of yours posted it on social media? We went to Heard on Hurd recently, and we had a great time, but it got me thinking—this was a huge event! How did they market it?

I suspected that they used online marketing as a way to reach a lot of people, and they are definitely using some good practices on the Facebook page and website for the event!

Could you promote your events more effectively using online marketing?

Here are some ways you can reach future attendees through Facebook, email, and other online marketing tactics!

Have a hub

Have one main, central place where you have the information for the event. This should be easy to access. You could create a new page in your website for the event, or create a Facebook event directly within Facebook.

Creating a central hub for your event makes it much easier for people to share—there’s one URL that has all the information future attendees will need to know. They can share that link on their email, Facebook, twitter, or other platforms they use frequently.

Register

Having registration for your event helps you predict attendance. It can also prompt people who might be on the fence about going to decide to attend, if they are able to see that their friends are going.

There are a few different options you can use for registration for your event. Constant Contact and Eventbrite are good choices, but you may also want to consider simply using your event’s Facebook page. Since Facebook publicly displays who is interested and going to an event, people are able to see if their friends are going and often will decide to attend based on that.

Engage

Heard on Hurd’s Facebook page is a great example of engaging with event attendees. They will respond to people’s comments and answer questions right on the event page!

Doing this for an event makes you more approachable, but it also helps increase the reach of your social media presence in general.

We recommend you email your friends and colleagues asking them to like, comment, and share a specific post for an event (by using the link for that update). This makes that post more visible and gives more people a chance to learn about your event.

Online marketing is really helpful for promoting events because it is social by nature. I’m much more likely to attend something that my friends are going to or even invited me to than something I’ve just seen on a billboard. People have to decide to spend time with you in order to come to your event, and online marketing can get your event’s information in front of people in an approachable, inviting way!